Your Flash Splash Page Is No Longer Invisible

Web designers love Flash, Adobe's industry-standard method of displaying dynamic images. But anyone who cared about Search Engine Optimization knew the dirty little secret of Flash: it was all pretty much invisible to web-crawlers like Google. Adobe is now providing Google and Yahoo with the tools necessary to index Flash content, so it won't be unsearchable anymore.

Google has already begun to roll out Adobe Flash Player technology incorporated into its search engine. With Adobe’s help, Google can now better read the content on sites that use Adobe Flash technology, helping users find more relevant information when conducting searches. As a result, millions of pre-existing RIAs and dynamic Web experiences that utilize Adobe Flash technology, including content that loads at runtime, are immediately searchable without the need for companies and developers to alter them.

So the bad news is: many websites will go back to having a Flash format "Splash Page." The good news is: Google has already introduced a "Skip Flash Intro" button on their search results page. There's no news on HotHardware's petition to make using glitter fonts punishable by caning, however.